With the additional travel needs of delegates, media personnel and convention attendees, Walker — who has worked as a bellman and van driver at the Holiday Inn for six years — said the downtown area is more clogged than he’s ever seen it.
“Traffic is busy on normal days … But this has really shut the city down as far as the downtown area,” he said, explaining that the hotel suspended its van services during the week. “It’s just too hard to get from point A to point B and get the guests where they need to be.”
Even Walker had some difficulty getting into the city for his Wednesday afternoon shift: The Secret Service stopped his car for a security check as he neared the Time Warner Cable Arena.
“Wow, it has been really crazy,” he said. “You know, it’s a little out of the ordinary to have guard dogs running around your car, but the president’s here with his wife and a lot of very important people, and we want to make sure that everybody’s safe.”
Despite the presence of more than 100 Occupy protesters near his post at the entrance of the hotel, Walker said he feels that safety has been maintained.
“This sort of thing comes with the DNC — everybody has an opinion, and this is just the way they express themselves.”
Lauren Thomas, bartender
As a bartender in uptown Charlotte, Lauren Thomas knows how much people like to drink.
But even with $4 specials on just about every drink in the bar, Thomas said Wednesday afternoons at the Town Tavern tend to be one of the slowest periods of the week.
That was before the convention brought in thousands of visitors ready to try out Charlotte’s bars and restaurants.
Wednesday afternoon alone, Thomas said at least 20 people per hour stopped in for a drink and a break from the humidity.
Thomas said she has also seen a shift in orders, including a significant spike in the sale of Samuel Adams.
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“People have been very nice, and everybody’s been talking about what’s going on here,” she said. “Everybody’s been showing me pictures of movie stars that they’ve seen and some even had pictures with Obama from when he just landed here.”
While she hasn’t seen any celebrities, Thomas expects more business today, when speeches end.
“It’s been an experience,” Smith said as she poured a mixed drink for a customer. “I personally haven’t seen anybody, but who knows? People just come in at the most random times, just being like, ‘You know, I want a beer.’”
Samuel Smith, police captain
The corner of Fifth and Tryon Streets isn’t known for its performances.
But that was before Capt. Samuel Smith of Georgia’s Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and three of his coworkers took over the intersection.
Whistling along to beats from their favorite songs and intermittently performing Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley dance moves, the four men took directing downtown traffic as an opportunity to enjoy their North Carolina visit.
“We’ve never worked a convention before, so everything is new to us,” Smith said. “We’ve just loved hanging out and watching the citizens respond to the little show that’s going on.”
An experienced member of his county’s SWAT team, Smith jumped at the chance to volunteer in Charlotte when the city reached out to other agencies for help with the convention.
The city employs more than 1,600 police officers but did not return calls for comment on the number of outside volunteers.
Pedestrians passed Smith with amused looks.
“It’s just been such a great time. The crowds seem to like my signature move called ‘the boot,’” he said as he stuck his left foot in the air. “When the car’s going by, you’ve just got to kick it a little ‘cause it’s moving kind of slow.”
Chanell Ogburn, barista and student
From the moment Chanell Ogburn clocked into her 10 a.m. shift to the time she finally walked out of work, a constant line of caffeine-starved convention-goers stood before her.
With her hair tied up and her green Starbucks apron flapping behind her, Ogburn served more than 100 customers per hour at her store’s downtown location.
“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re selling this, we’re selling that, do we have any more of that?’” she said. “It’s been really busy — we ran out of quarters, pennies, dollars and everything.”
The N.C. Department of Commerce has anticipated that the Democratic National Convention could bring in as much as $200 million.
In addition to serving more mochas, lattes and Frappuccinos than she ever has, the junior at Central Piedmont Community College also spent more time commuting to work.
Ogburn’s 30-minute bus ride to work took more than an hour Monday, a slowdown she said has become common because of street closures.
“Working during the convention has been fun, but I just can’t wait until it’s over,” she said. “At least now when we go back to our regular business it will be like, ‘This is nothing compared to what we had to deal with during the DNC.’”
